Statistical modelling of neuronal assemblies underneath a recording electrode

The brain contains billions of neurons each connected to several thousand other neurons. The voltage recorded over the scalp/skull is generated by activity of large population of neurons. Different recorded amplitudes at different states of vigilance are attributed to differences in synchrony level among neurons and different statistical structures of the population; however the relation between the signals and the statistical characteristics of the underlying neural activity is still an open question. We developed a model based on multidimensional stationary stochastic processes to resolve the statistical organization properties of neural assemblies. We showed that despite the many possible options for statistical organizations only very few are mathematically plausible.